Lily Philips - can she be a 'true' Christian?

[mids2019]

https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/lily-phillips-has-been-baptised-i-pray-its-accompanied-by-change/20772.article

This article made me think about what it means to be Christian especially about the concepts of sin, judgment and redemption.

In my view Lily of course is a Christian being baptised but to not give up a lucrative adult film career possibly does cause angst amongst more traditional Christians.

We are taught not to judge 'Let those without sin cast the first stone' and to accept the universal unconditionally of forgiveness. (We pray every day about the forgiveness of sin) so it is difficult thologically to condemn others.

However does any fellow Christian need to remind Lily she makes money from a profession where many women with less choice are coerced and manipulated for thr gratification of men? Wr have moved away from a less judgmental Christianity but how do you view participation in Christian life with such a job?

Quote : " I asked my question because I only have time and head space right now to give very basic answers that will probably not satisfy you."

I hope you understand this is not me personally attacking you demanding you give ME answers ? It's not up to you. Really, you should just be able to say " see Papal document number XXX", or " see the paper the reverend Smith wrote". But you can't. They are the ones saying "you must believe X Y Z or you are a bad person". So it should be them.

After 2000 years of them holding a large part of humanity back because of superstition. 2000 years of religious wars, witch burning, expulsion from society, right up to Magdalene laundries, and abusive priests of today, you would think at least one of them would be able to run out, paper held aloft, yelling " I have it, I have it. I have evidence it is all true".

But nah. That has not happened.

I love Kurzesagt! But... even they admit science doesn't know what caused the Big Bang! A whole universe out of nothing? I don't think so. It was created by God.

@RedTagAlan "After 2000 years of them holding a large part of humanity back"

Out of curiosity, what exactly is humanity being held back from? What would humanity have become without any gods or religion? Because as far back as you can go humans seem to want to make deities. Why?

If you spent some time reading the numerous articles and books about the Big Bang theory you’d perhaps understand how the universe was created. I went to the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures as a child- factual evidence presented in an easy to understand manner. Science is fascinating

I think He's doing a fabulous job considering 2,000 years have passed since Jesus walked the earth and Christianity was born. Just one man and his 12 disciples, His teachings rippling out across the nations and time so that there have been millions of Christians, and there still are.

And if you're going to argue that, then what about the Muslim god Allah? He's also done a pretty good job of recruiting millions - currently 2 billion across the world, with Christianity just in excess of that at around 2.3-2.6 billion.

There are times of revival, and times of apostasy. God is in control.

Humans invented Gods to try to explain what they saw around them. And these religions that formed around these invested Gods held back science developing because science was seen as an afront to the invented Gods.

I don't have an issue with how the universe was created in terms of elemental particles and so on. I just have an issue with saying it appeared out of nothing and also that it took billions of years to get to the formation of our solar system and Earth. But the physics? I'm OK with that. I didn't step out of the middle ages. I am (well was, as I'm a bit old now) a scientist and believed all that Big Bang stuff you talk about. Until recently.

In control of what??

Everything? Since God exists outside of time He can see the entire timeline of...everything.

Science is fact - some don’t understand it but evidence is everything. Just because you don’t understand it, it doesn’t mean it’s no true

Well it's fact until someone comes up with a new theory then that is proved as fact and overrides the previous fact! Science isn't a static thing, it evolves over time as new information is discovered and new technology developed to study our universe.

Science is fact - available to everyone in the same way. Religion isn’t a fact and doesn’t have evidence to back it up

Bible science.

Gen 30:37-39 And Jacob takes to himself a rod of fresh poplar and almond and plane-tree, and peels in them white peelings, making bare the white that [is] on the rods, and sets up the rods which he has peeled in the gutters in the watering troughs (where the flock comes to drink), in front of the flock, that they may conceive in their coming to drink; and the flocks conceive at the rods, and the flock bears striped, speckled, and spotted ones. ( LSV)

Has the science of this Biblical teaching from God been proven to work or not ?

No idea, haven't studied this passage yet. Will get to it later this year as my Church are doing Genesis, verse by verse.

Fair enough. My point in quoting it though that it is right there in the book. Complete with all the context needed to say if it is true or not. That coupled with a bit of secondary school biology.

Upthread you said this : "Well it's fact until someone comes up with a new theory then that is proved as fact and overrides the previous fact! Science isn't a static thing, it evolves over time as new information is discovered and new technology developed to study our universe."

Yes, science has new discoveries, but new discoveries tend not to override established science. You know this, but here you are posting something that is getting very close to stock apologetics. Can you name any accepted science that has been overridden ?

A usual one is that Einstein overrode Newton's gravity law. But that is not true. Newtons law still applies in most cases. Eistein effectively refined it. I like to describe that as it is Newton that gets the rockets carrying GPS satellites up there, it is Eisteins time dialation that gets the GPS working.

That’s like saying you don’t understand

Another way, without realising it, of saying that gods (which one are you referring to?) don't actually exist. There isn’t now nor has there ever been any credible evidence of anything supernatural With our ever increasing knowledge of science and everything we’ve discovered, it turns out there is no evidence of any gods.

@Parker231

There is evidence for the existence of deities, it is just evidence which you do not consider to reliable or credible.

Anecdotal evidence - Wikipedia

"Anecdotal evidence (or anecdata[1]) is evidence based on descriptions and reports of individual, personal experiences, or observations,[2][3] collected in a non-systematic manner.[4]
The term anecdotal encompasses a variety of forms of evidence, including personal experiences, self-reported claims,[3] eyewitness accounts of others,[5] and those from fictional sources, making it a broad category that can lead to confusion due to its varied interpretations. Anecdotal evidence can be true or false but is not usually subjected to scholarly methods, scientific methods, or rules of legal, historical, academic, or intellectual rigor"

If you feel that anecdotal evidence is flawed, weak, unreliable and non-credible, that is totally valid. But it is incorrect to say that there is no evidence. Anecdotal evidence is a form of evidence.

Give an example then.

Anecdotal evidence is flawed for the reasons you listed-it relies on isolated personal stories rather than data.
The sample size is usually very small and doesn’t represent the whole population. People remember stories which match what they want to believe regardless of the lack of true data and evidence.

@RedTagAlan

An example of anecdotal evidence?

Here - Three Messages From Loki To The World | John Beckett

This is a blog post in which John Beckett relates the experience of the god Loki communicating during a ritual.

I don't expect you (or other atheists) to view this as reliable or credible evidence. But this is an example of anecdotal evidence. People reporting their observations and experiences.

@Parker231

My point is that it still qualifies as a form of evidence. Evidence can be flawed or weak - it still counts as evidence.

I personally view at least some anecdotal evidence as reliable and credible, but I don't expect everyone else to do so.

But there is a big difference between saying "there is no credible/reliable evidence" and saying that there is no evidence at all.

Evidence is there, it is just evidence that you view as flawed, weak and unreliable. Which is fine. People are entitled to come to their own conclusions regarding the quality of the evidence.

Won't open for me sorry. Blocked my location. I searched and got 1 result that was a parked wordpress site.

Any more examples ?

OK well I have exhausted all I want to say to you as you are convinced you are right and I am similarly convinced of the converse.

You’ve closed your mind as you can’t provide evidence to support your claims. I’m always open to reviewing and researching evidence provided.

It’s like saying someone is guilty but you can’t provide proof.

I already posted to say that link you posted was blocked. Not my end, their end. Cloudflare blocked for where I am.

However, if it is the same John Beckett Born in Tennessee who has the website "Under the Ancient Oaks", there might be a small issue in that he runs courses on the subject and charges for them.

Courses – Under the Ancient Oaks

Is this the same guy ? Of Denton Texas now.

John Beckett | UUA.org

For Tarot his rates are

"My rates are $75 for a half hour or $100 for an hour. I offer discounts for multi-session commitments.
I am in the U.S. Central Time Zone and I work a day job. My consultations are usually on weeknights between 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM. I can occasionally work on a weekend. I usually work via Zoom and/or e-mail, but I can use most other platforms if you have an account for them."

Consulting – Under the Ancient Oaks

I can't find anything about him and Loki. But my web is restricted.